


Replacements

by defeatedbyabridge



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-30
Updated: 2012-09-30
Packaged: 2017-11-15 08:23:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/525193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defeatedbyabridge/pseuds/defeatedbyabridge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short Kira/Odo conversation, set at the end of season 6. </p><p>Written eons ago for the lovely yourcruisedirector.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Replacements

Kira sat in Sisko's chair, feeling like a fraud. 

She was used to command. She was even used to commanding DS9 -- Sisko had taken leave before, even once or twice of his own choice rather than obeying Bashir's orders. 

But not like this. 

Not with Dax dead. Not with the wormhole closed and Sisko gone, perhaps forever. 

"This isn't my place," she muttered, staring unseeing at the padd in her hand. 

"What was that, Major?" 

She flinched, yanking the I'm A Professional Right Down To My Professional Bones persona into place. "Nothing, Odo, I apologise. Now, about this --"

"Unusually high level of requests for leave in your section," he prompted. 

"--unusually high level of requests for leave in your section," she continued smoothly. "As you know it's perfectly natural considering the month we've had. Many people have taken leave station-wide. I think you need to use your judgement -- let them go, but talk to the ones you're most concerned about. Try to determine if they'll come back."

He stared at her oddly. She noticed for the first time just how tired he looked. His features were blurred; well, blurred *more*, and he slumped into the chair like a person with no spine. Which he was, of course, but he usually pretended. 

"Major, you recommended that course of action yesterday. I have already done that," he said quietly, the roughness in his voice more pronounced than usual. "I came back again today to discuss the results."

Kira felt herself flush red with embarrassment. "Oh, Odo. . . I'm sorry. I'm just so tired."

He stood, walked over to the window, and said casually, "How long is it since *you* took leave?"

"I can't. Not with Sisko away. Who else is there?" It was supposed to be a no-nonsense, rhetorical question, but came out as more of a plea. 

She felt an awkward hand on her shoulder. She flinched, and the hand withdrew, but she shook her head. "It's all right, Odo. I don't mind." He started tentatively rubbing her shoulders. She sighed, feeling some of the tension ebb out of her. "You know, for someone with no shoulder muscles yourself, you do that pretty well."

"Perhaps you need leave more than anyone else," he offered. "Sisko left it all to you, and the station needs you to be functioning at one hundred percent."

Kira felt her face harden. "It's not f-," she begun, then bit the word back. She wasn't so childish. 

He turned her chair around gently, and took her hand. "You're not alone," he said. "Don't ever think that. And it's *not* fair, but that's why you have friends. If Sisko doesn't come back, we will manage, Nerys. As we always do." 

She nodded. "I miss him," she said. "Jadzia, too." 

The next day there was a framed photo of Jadzia waiting for her on Sisko's desk, in the space where his baseball used to sit.


End file.
